Evidently it doesn't matter how famous you are, if you're a black male in the United States, step out of line and you're a target for police violence.

Wiz Khalifa, who just topped the charts worldwide with See You Again (which was viewed 850 million times on YouTube) - has been aggressively detained by police officers at Los Angeles airport.

Khalifa was returning from a European tour and claimed on social media he was, bizarrely, riding his hoverboard at the airport. Several companies have been actively marketing commercial hoverboards of late, although Khalifa did not mention the brand of his.

In video of the incident, three uniformed officers can be seen pushing Khalifa face first to the ground and kneeling on his back shouting for him to "stop resisting" surrounded by onlookers.

Khalifa calmly tells them "I'm not resisting sir." Other videos on the internet suggest Khalifa may have been trying to talk police out of charging him just a minute before they wrestled him to the ground, but whether that justified their response is another question.

​The US Customs and Border Protection wouldn't respond to questions about the incident, but did issue CNN with a blanket statement, which included: "An uncompliant passenger or any disruptive behavior could put many at risk in this highly secure area."

Khalifa has 60 million fans on Facebook and Twitter who quickly took to social media in defence of the star.

TMZ later reported Khalifa apologised and would not face charges.

.@wizkhalifa, violently arrested on 8.22.15 by officers at the LA airport for hoverboard use. America. pic.twitter.com/jpSWTCDrsK— deray mckesson (@deray) August 23, 2015

They love sayin stop resisting. pic.twitter.com/v2tdOOikMy— Cameron (@wizkhalifa) August 22, 2015

All because I didn't want to ditch the technogy everyone will be using in the next 6 months. Do what you want kids. pic.twitter.com/7F0KIQgFrA— Cameron (@wizkhalifa) August 23, 2015